Advertising Demographic Groups

The advertising industry breaks down target demographics into the following age cells, and then by gender.

For instance, M18-24 means men aged 18-24; W25-34 refers to women 25-34. If your target is both men and women, the target cell will be abbreviated with an A or P, as in A18-24 or P18-24, which refers to adults or persons, respectively.

Demographic Market Segmentation

M = Men, W = Women, A = Adults (or P = Persons)

12 – 17

18 – 24

25 – 34

35 – 44

45 – 54

55 – 64

65+

If you’re developing an RFP (request for proposal), think about the specific product or service you are planning to advertise.

For instance, if you’re a mortgage company, your business as a whole may have a wide target customer base (A35+). But you may want to focus your advertising on a specific product to a more defined market. For instance, reverse mortgages to seniors (A65+), or focus on a service for first time home buyers (A35-44).

To evaluate a radio station’s strength, in your RFP you can ask for a proposed radio schedule based on a primary demo (demographic) and a secondary demo. Using the example above, your primary demo could be A35+ and your secondary demo could be A65+ or A35-44.

The more focused you can be with your message and target demographic, the better results you’ll see with your advertising.